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A sheen of fuel oil sits on the Mississippi River in New Orleans Louisiana following a large spill on July 23 2008. The Mississippi River reopened to limited traffic on Friday two days after a barge collided with a tanker spilling hundreds of gallons …
A sheen of fuel oil sits on the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Louisiana, following a large spill on July 23, 2008. The Mississippi River reopened to limited traffic on Friday, two days after a barge collided with a tanker spilling hundreds of gallons of fuel oil, the US Coast Guard said.

The Mississippi River reopened to limited traffic on Friday, two days after a barge collided with a tanker spilling hundreds of thousands of gallons of fuel oil, the US Coast Guard said.
Oil cleanup crews were busy containing the spill with booms and removing what they could from the water, according to local reports, as a handful of vessels began moving in the area.

The Coast Guard had closed off a 100-mile (160-kilometer) stretch of the river, from the port of New Orleans down to the Gulf of Mexico, after the oil tanker Tintomara collided Wednesday with an American Commercial Lines barge that was being pushed by a tug boat.

“The Coast Guard opened the river today at noon (1600 GMT), to limited use,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

Clean-up crews have been trying to contain the 419,000 gallons (1.6 million liters) of fuel oil which spilled into the river.

New Orleans city officials promised residents that the drinking water was safe, even as a chemical odor wafted over the waterfront city and scientists set up a rescue operation for oily birds and animals.

The 600-foot (183-meter) oil tanker sustained no damage but the crash split the barge nearly in two, and the thick, smelly oil poured into the river just off the banks of downtown New Orleans.

The operators of the tugboat did not have the proper license to be operating on the river, said the Coast Guard, which has launched an investigation along with the National Transportation Safety Board.

“There were no properly licensed individuals on the vessel during the time that the incident occurred,” the Coast Guard said.

The closure of the port of New Orleans was having an economic impact topping 100 million dollars per day, while the impact on the entire area affected by the spill was a massive 275 million dollars per day, the New Orleans Times-Picayune cited port president Gary LaGrange as saying.

It was unclear how long the port would remain closed.

As of Friday morning, the barge remained stuck in the river as workers rushed to contain the spill.

“Additional crews are steadily coming in all day,” Coast Guard spokesman Thomas Blue told AFP, saying that about 300 people were already involved in the cleanup.

“Anytime there is a spill there are always environmental concerns,” Blue said, adding that the Coast Guard was working with US Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

A total of 67,000 feet (20,420 meters) of boom was spread up and down the river bed and around the barge in order to contain the oil, Blue said.

The material floats on water and helps prevent oil from spreading into wildlife habitats and drinking water intake pipes.

Commercial Lines has submitted a salvage plan for the barge to the Coast Guard for approval and work on extracting the boat was expected to start later in the day, Blue said.

Government scientists set up a cleaning station for birds and other animals caught in the spill, according to local reports.

Local residents rushed to buy bottled water despite assurances by the Sewerage and Water Board that the drinking water was safe.

“The mayor’s saying, ‘Drink the water in moderation,’ so does that mean I’m going to get moderately sick? Or are my guests going to get moderately sick?” cafe owner Ed Moise was quoted as saying by the Times-Picayune.